Materials Selection and Performance of Fiber-Reinforced Plastic Poles

In this work, the failure analysis of a natural and glass fiber reinforced plastic light pole was studied. FT-IR was used to examine the chemical composition of FRP light poles. To investigate the viscoelastic and thermal stability qualities, samples of light poles were subjected to dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and thermogravetric analysis (TGA). Materials selection for wind load scenarios were invistigated. The coupling agent N (beta-aminoethyl) gamma aminopropyltrimethoxysilane, polyester (PE), natural fibre, and glass fibers were identfied in the FT-IR study. Using DMA, it was found that the peak loss modulus of the PE composite's glass transition temperature (Tg) is 76.2 °C. According to TGA, 40% of FRPs pole were fabricated from glass fibre by weight. Materials selection study showed that the glass fiber-PE composites are suitable for light poles manufacture based on material index and wind load with safety factor 4. Fiber reinforced plastics were found to be delaminated. This can be explained by the weak interfacial force between polyester and glass fiber in the presence of natural fibre. The presence of moisture caused the fiber matrix contact to hydrolyze (high humidity). This caused low performance efficiency of a light pole fabricated using FRPs.